Chelmos, Erimanthos, Mainalo: A Peloponnesian Butterflies Trip, 28/06/12 – 08/07/12 (1 Viewer)

[CactusD]

Moreover, my successes based only really on guesswork, the internet, and some maps, suggest that trips to other mountainous areas, at similar or other times of the year, could be great. I imagine that, depending on the weather, any time between April and July might be brilliant; moreover, in the spring the mountain wildflowers can be an awe-inspiring sight.

Other mountains for me to explore in future include Taygetos in the south, and Parnassos and Oite in southern central Greece (sadly not enough time to visit these on this trip); and then of course there are the northern mountains up towards Albania and Bulgaria which are accessible from Ioannina and Thessaloniki. Crete also looks very promising. There are a massive 235 Greek species to go looking for, so plenty of opportunities!

If you’re into your birds too, then a spring visit to Lesvos could be good for butterflies as well as stunning for spring migration (I did this last year and came home with a bird-list of 160, though the relatively poor weather meant that butterflies were much harder to come by).

If it’s still available (though it is expensive), I’d recommend a copy of Pamperis’ Butterflies of Greece because of its useful info, excellent range of photos of local forms (all with altitude and date), and interesting altitude and latitude diagrams. An interesting book to have anyway!

 

[CactusD]

I’ll finish off with a round-up of photos and an overview Google Earth screengrab. If anyone is interested in further details please feel free to get in touch and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this: hopefully you enjoyed it and found it informative and interesting. With any luck I’ll be back with more trip reports from Greece in the future… And, last but by no means least, a big big thankyou to my wife and parents-in-law for their kindness, childcare, and help to make this trip possible.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[black52bird]

Wonderful account!

Dear Dave

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write up the account of your exciting trip so nicely. It is a real pleasure read something well-written, informative and enthusiatstic like this, plus lovely to see your photos of places and species, which helped it along enormously. As a professional writer, I think you could easily turn this into a very nice illustrated account fit for publication.

I wonder what books you were using to identify your butterflies with? The old Higgins & Riley, plus Tolman & Lewington, maybe? If so, how did you find them there? Have you got a decent Greek butterfly guide? Is there one?

I lived in and worked southern Serbia, Kosovo and (then Yugoslavian) Macedonia from 1980-1990, and so am familiar with some of these species, but I only had Higgins & Riley first edition in those days. My Serbian friend Predrag Jaksic has done much to enhance knowledge of butterflies in that area, though, as far as I know not into Greece. His 1988 book, printed in Germany, on Macedonian butterflies, is good, though the illustrations are all photos of his pinned specimens.

Many congratulations!

David

 

[CactusD]

Dear Dave

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write up the account of your exciting trip so nicely. It is a real pleasure read something well-written, informative and enthusiatstic like this, plus lovely to see your photos of places and species, which helped it along enormously. As a professional writer, I think you could easily turn this into a very nice illustrated account fit for publication.

I wonder what books you were using to identify your butterflies with? The old Higgins & Riley, plus Tolman & Lewington, maybe? If so, how did you find them there? Have you got a decent Greek butterfly guide? Is there one?

I lived in and worked southern Serbia, Kosovo and (then Yugoslavian) Macedonia from 1980-1990, and so am familiar with some of these species, but I only had Higgins & Riley first edition in those days. My Serbian friend Predrag Jaksic has done much to enhance knowledge of butterflies in that area, though, as far as I know not into Greece. His 1988 book, printed in Germany, on Macedonian butterflies, is good, though the illustrations are all photos of his pinned specimens.

Many congratulations!

David

This is really very kind, David. Although this area (and Greece in general) is clearly very good for butterflies, it tends to get a little overlooked in favour of more popular destinations such as the Alps and Pyrenees.
Re. books, I used three together:
Tolman & Lewington
Lafranchis, Butterflies of Europe
Pamperis, The Butterflies of Greece
The last two have a useful and quite extensive range of photographs; I purchased my copies from here.


Other things to look at to help along the way include the excellent and comprehensive website by Matt Rowlings at http://www.eurobutterflies.com/
If you're ever stuck, the ID section - for butterflies from across Europe - on http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk, in addition to here on BF, gets answered regularly by recognized experts.

Thanks again!
D